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PHNOM PENH, Jan. 11-- China eyes stronger ties with the other five countries along the Lancang-Mekong river, pledging new loans, medical aids and scholarships to its neighbors. At the second Lancang-Mekong Cooperation (LMC) leaders' meeting here on Wednesday, Chinese Premier Li Keqiang announced that China will provide another 7 billion yuan (1.08 billion U.S. dollars) in government concessional loans to Myanmar, Laos, Thailand, Cambodia and Vietnam. He also announced the setup of a 5-billion-dollar credit line for supporting production capacity and equipment manufacturing cooperation among the Lancang-Mekong countries. The new offer came after China supplied the five riparian countries with 10 billion yuan (1.54 billion dollars) of concessional loans, 5 billion dollars of export credit and 5 billion dollars for capacity cooperation in more than 20 infrastructure and industry projects, Li said. The deficit that China holds with the Mekong countries on farm product trade will not prevent China from importing more, Li said, adding that protectionism is China's last choice. With a theme of "Our River of Peace and Sustainable Development," Wednesday's meeting brought leaders of China, Myanmar, Laos, Thailand, Cambodia and Vietnam to the table on such issues as connectivity, water management and industrial production capacity. China is the largest trading partner of Cambodia, Myanmar, Vietnam and Thailand and the second largest of Laos. Bilateral trade between China and the five riparian countries totaled 220 billion dollars in 2017, up 16 percent year on year. | 
